Evil + Genius = Apple?

Wired's latest issue has a whole series of articles on Apple, Steve Jobs and the gamut of products prefixed with 'i'. The write ups talk about how Apple has violated every rule in the Silicon Valley play book and yet won the game (or rather, hence won the game). While the articles make for really good reading, they seem to miss the point.

The Wired guys mistake creativity and genius for arrogance and pomposity. Steve Jobs is arrogant, yells at his employees and sues kids who blog about Apple. So he must be a genius. Hmmm.

Here's my take ... Steve Jobs is a genius. He's probably the most creative guy alive. He's the CEO of two companies at the same time. He revived a dying company in the late 90's and got its products into everyone's hands. And not just any products, but products with sex appeal. Now that's genius.

The fact that Apple hasn't followed the 'don't be evil' mantra that so many startups are living by these days, has nothing to do with the fact that they are a super creative bunch. Its the quality of the product in the end that matters. As an end-user shelling out $600 for an iPhone and $400 for an iPod all I care about is that the product works as expected and looks cool. I don't give a rats ass who the CEO of the company is, what shirts and jeans he wears, whether he yells at his employees or whether he keeps all products behind closed doors before launching them. Sure, as a geek I'd like know what the Apple guys are up to next. But I'm also an end-user. And I dig gadgets. Cool, sexy gadgets. I love my iPhone and MacBook Pro.

Creativity and management don't get along. Saying that 'management style X breeds creativity' is a bunch of crap. It just doesn't make sense. Give credit where credit is due. And don't attribute it to anything else.